Total sales increased by 2.1% in October, compared with the same period last year.

'Fragile recovery'

SRC director Fiona Moriarty said: "The drop in Scottish footfall matches the September result, and mirrors our recent sales figures which painted a picture of fragile recovery and many of us holding back on shopping trips until Christmas gets closer.

"There's clearly some uncertainty ahead, but retailers will be hoping that seasonal momentum will help lift these figures into more positive territory next month."

Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, which carried out the research, said footfall trends had been on an accelerating downward slide since August.

Her analysis suggested high streets increasingly lost out to shopping centres as the weather worsened last month.

On an annual basis, footfall in town centres dropped by -3.6% compared with -2.9% in shopping centres.

Ms Wehrle added: "Out-of-town locations have clearly been the most resilient, with an annual drop in footfall of less than half that recorded in shopping centres and a third of the drop in high street footfall - clearly the result of the recorded demand for leisure, household and games products."